New York City Transit Police could be seen removing a passenger from a train car after an MTA worker complaint at the 6 train’s 116th St and Lexington Avenue station in Harlem Friday.
The law enforcement presence comes as the city — and now state — attempt to tackle transit crime, which is something Faisal Jabbar welcomes since he travels through the station often and works right above it.
“There will [always] be two police officers on that block and there will always be two police officers in that subway station,” Jabbar said. “That’s kind of okay. I mean, that’s safe.”
What You Need To Know
- NY1 crews observed a lack of law enforcement presence at several of the lowest rated subway stations for safety in the city, based on riders' opinions, amid the addition of hundreds of police and National Guard troops in subway system
- As concerns mount over a surge of recent transit crime, earlier this week Gov. Kathy Hochul deployed 750 National Guard members, along with a combined 250 New York State Police and MTA Police, to help with bag checks in stations
- There’s already a similar ban on anyone who attacks an MTA worker, but the governor admits that law is rarely used
- The NYPD said officers are deployed based on a number of factors, including crime, time of day, ridership volume, intelligence gathered and customer feedback
Out of all the subway stations in the city, straphangers rated the 116th Street and Lexington Avenue subway station as the least safe from crime and harassment. That’s based on scores from the MTA’s most recent customer count survey from the fall.
As concerns mount over a surge of recent transit crime, earlier this week Gov. Kathy Hochul deployed 750 National Guard members, along with a combined 250 New York State Police and MTA Police, to help with bag checks in stations.
This week, National Guard troops could be seen at Penn Station and Grand Central. That’s on top of the NYPD surge of 1000 extra cops on patrol in subways that started in February.
“I feel like it’s too much,” said rider Joya Copeland. “I feel like the NYPD is enough. Because I feel like the National Guard, they have their guns and stuff. We already have NYPD for that.”
Yet, NY1 found no law enforcement presence Friday morning at the next worst station on the list — 125th Street and Lexington Avenue station — nearly 10 blocks north on the 4, 5 and 6 lines.
“It’s very dangerous in this area,” said food truck worker David Rabilas.
It’s so dangerous that Rabilas said his wife, who has worked a food truck with him for nearly 20 years outside the station, was robbed in broad daylight about 6 months ago. He said the criminal broke the window and took the money while she was in the truck. Now he doesn’t let her work alone.
“The thing is, we have like 20 years here with our customers. If we change, we have to start again,” Rabilas said when asked about the possibility of finding a new location for his food truck.
Meanwhile, over at the B and D train’s Kingsbridge Road subway station near Grand Concourse in the Bronx, NY1 also found no sign of law enforcement Friday morning. That’s despite subway users giving it the third worst score for safety from crime and harassment.
NY1 reached out the NYPD and the governor’s office to find out why there was no law enforcement presence at two of the three stations that straphangers judged the least safe in the system and how deployment decisions are made.
Only the NYPD responded, saying:
“The NYPD continually assesses which stations to deploy officers based on a number of factors, including, but not limited to crime, time of day, ridership volume, intelligence gathered and customer feedback. This deployment includes both highly visible uniformed members as well as officers patrolling in plainclothes.”
It is unclear if there were any plainclothes police officers at any of the aforementioned subway stations.